Controversial women’s basketball superstar Angel Reese became the first player to be ejected from a game in the startup Unrivaled league on Saturday. She then called a Sports Illustrated article covering the incident “clickbait.”
Reese was ejected during the Rose Basketball Club’s matchup against Vinyl Basketball Club in the second quarter. She was called for a foul against Tiffany Hayes, then she earned a technical foul after making an offensive gesture toward a referee. When she started arguing that foul, she got a second technical, and refs tossed her from the game after that.
Reese wasted very little time after the historic ejection to vent her feelings on social media, firing off a series of posts on X. One was a re-sharing of the Sports Illustrated article covering the ejection, which she captioned with her criticism.
“Clickbait. Everything I do keep going viral,” Reese wrote over the article.
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Reese and Rose Basketball Club were already in last place with a 1-4 record going into Saturday’s game, but things got worse after the star’s ejection. Rose lost 79-73 as Vinyl’s Rhyne Howard dropped 33 points on Reese’s squad amid the ejection.
Reese has been one of the most controversial stars in women’s basketball ever since her infamous late-game showboating in the 2023 NCAA women’s basketball championship game. Reese led LSU to a 102-85 victory over Caitlin Clark and Iowa that March and bragged about it by pointing to her finger in front of Clark’s face to remind her rival who was getting the ring.
It was a moment that Reese says “changed my life forever,” in the first episode of her podcast.
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Angel Reese of the Rose takes a moment against the Vinyl during a timeout at Wayfair Arena. (Jim Rassol-Imagn Images)
“I think it’s really just the fans, her fans, the Iowa fans, now the Indiana fans, that are really just, they ride for her, and I respect that, respectfully. But sometimes it’s very disrespectful. I think there’s a lot of racism when it comes to it,” Reese said.
Reese even alleges that some fans have made AI-generated images of her, depicting her without clothes on, and sent them to her family members.
The two renewed their rivalry the following season in the 2024 Elite 8, as Clark got her revenge by defeating Reese and LSU 94-87. After the game, Reese cried at the post-game press conference as she recounted the harassment she received following the previous season’s controversy.
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Sky forward Angel Reese walks on the court at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Aug. 25, 2024. (Kamil Krzaczynski-USA Today Sports)
In four head-to-head WNBA matchups this past season, Clark’s Indiana Fever beat Reese’s Chicago Sky three times. In just two of those contests, Reese put up more points than Clark, while pulling down more rebounds than Clark in all four meetings. Clark registered more assists in all four meetings.
Reese’s Sky also committed several controversial fouls against Clark in those meetings, including one from Reese herself when she slammed her arm into Clark’s head in a game in June, resulting in a flagrant-1.
The two won’t be bringing their rivalry to Unrivaled, at least not this year. Clark declined to join the league despite an aggressive push from its ownership group.
But even with Clark not in that league, Reese is still finding ways to stir trouble.
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